A Diary of Reinventing Ourselves

scotdebs

Hi FT just catching up with the diary and just wanted to say you are doing great. Re paying credit cards- yes the sensible MSE thing to do is pay off the one with the highest APR but when we were really in the poo and couldn't get a 0% deal for love nor money I paid off the smallest balance who did them offer us a Bt deal - that then created a bit of a virtuous circle and now almost all our debt is on 0% finance compared to it all being on 14% or higher a couple of yrs ago - might not work out that way for you but just wanted to share my experience

mumtoomany

Hi FT. Re dishwasher tablets, have you tried e-bay? If you are willing to buy a job lot, you can get them for about 4p per wash. Less if you buy the broken ones, (when I've bought these they are mostly whole ones). M2m.

JforGEM

If there's a farmf@@ds near you they do really good offers on branded soap powder and dishwasher tablets. I've just bought non bio P3rsil 120 washes for £14.95 and F1n1sh tablets 110 for £6.95. I also used money off coupon, we frequently get a FF leaflets through door with coupons for £2.50 for £25 spend, £5 off £50 and £12 off £100 but I noticed you can print off coupons from their website too.
U can tell my mission is to get my shopping bill down😂 although cupboard is jam packed with all my money saving loo rolls, soap powder etc etc

Forward_thinking

I'm back and out the other side! :hello::hello:

Spent the last four hours trawling through all our accounts. Pleased to say there are no huge shocks in there and OH hasn't been hiding anything from me. He is just totally and utterly rubbish at keeping the finances (just forgot the /n/ in that word which made me smile - if I wasn't married to him I would probably run too!) I have spent half the night just trying to access the accounts and most said last logged in in 2014!!!!!!

Actually, I've probably been quite unique and found that we are less in debt than he thought. Only marginally though. Instead of being 31k as he stated we are about 27k in debt - woohoo. Just a little then.

The thing that drives me crazy is the interest. Oh, the interest. Example:

on one of our cards we pay a minimum payment monthly of about £500 and yet a further £400 on interest.

Another card - we pay about £250 a month and a further £155 approx on interest.

Another: pay £14 a month and £9 interest.

I'm really shocked about this but OH just gave a garbled explanation of compound interest and didn't I ever do that at school? Actually no and I have hidden away from the finances ever since. Not anymore though :rotfl:

So I am feeling hugely in control and determined more than ever to get some work. How dare they charge us so much interest and have our family held hostage with a shot gun to our heads. I mean business!!!!!!

It's been a productive day: changed fuel supplier officially, cancelled another direct debit, trawled through the accounts and joined Amazon family with some great savings already made on nappies and kitchen roll and wipes.

OH was really pleased with my progress. He asked as soon as he got home if I had managed to change the fuel supplier and was visibly pleased when I told him what I had saved on nappies. Loving the idea of soap nuts - might be a bit too soon though.

I didn't get any grief for not having the cleaner in tonight. Little grief explaining the account details to me. Just the little dig about my lacking in mathematical awareness. But that's an improvement.

Tomorrow's mission is to look at our other direct debits and get stuck into YNAB which looks terribly complex for someone as apparently uneducated as I :grinheart

You know, I am off to bed now feeling somewhat lighter. I had expected the worst but now feel so much more in control, aware and fired up.

Watch this space!!!

lynnejk

Forward_thinking wrote: »

I'm back and out the other side! :hello::hello:

Spent the last four hours trawling through all our accounts. Pleased to say there are no huge shocks in there and OH hasn't been hiding anything from me. He is just totally and utterly rubbish at keeping the finances (just forgot the /n/ in that word which made me smile - if I wasn't married to him I would probably run too!) I have spent half the night just trying to access the accounts and most said last logged in in 2014!!!!!!

Actually, I've probably been quite unique and found that we are less in debt than he thought. Only marginally though. Instead of being 31k as he stated we are about 27k in debt - woohoo. Just a little then.

The thing that drives me crazy is the interest. Oh, the interest. Example:

on one of our cards we pay a minimum payment monthly of about £500 and yet a further £400 on interest.

Another card - we pay about £250 a month and a further £155 approx on interest.

Another: pay £14 a month and £9 interest.

I'm really shocked about this but OH just gave a garbled explanation of compound interest and didn't I ever do that at school? Actually no and I have hidden away from the finances ever since. Not anymore though :rotfl:

So I am feeling hugely in control and determined more than ever to get some work. How dare they charge us so much interest and have our family held hostage with a shot gun to our heads. I mean business!!!!!!

It's been a productive day: changed fuel supplier officially, cancelled another direct debit, trawled through the accounts and joined Amazon family with some great savings already made on nappies and kitchen roll and wipes.

OH was really pleased with my progress. He asked as soon as he got home if I had managed to change the fuel supplier and was visibly pleased when I told him what I had saved on nappies. Loving the idea of soap nuts - might be a bit too soon though.

I didn't get any grief for not having the cleaner in tonight. Little grief explaining the account details to me. Just the little dig about my lacking in mathematical awareness. But that's an improvement.

Tomorrow's mission is to look at our other direct debits and get stuck into YNAB which looks terribly complex for someone as apparently uneducated as I :grinheart

You know, I am off to bed now feeling somewhat lighter. I had expected the worst but now feel so much more in control, aware and fired up.

Watch this space!!!

Firstly a huge WELL DONE for getting stuck in and starting to get sorted with the accounts :T It's great that you actually owe £4000 less than you first thought.


It sounds a horrendous amount you are being charged for interest and hardly reducing your debts - not really able to help there but sure some of the others on here will have more ideas there.


I do think you should leave the YNAB for now and concentrate on other, more pressing, things such as the other direct debits. It will be easier to budget going forward once you have all your out-goings at a lower level.


I notice that you haven't really mentioned your spendings on groceries for a while - apart from a few things on the amazing site. You might find you can get things even cheaper at the discounters or £ shops


Can I suggest that you sit down tomorrow and make a menu plan for the next week - you could do it as a family thing to get everyone involved. Then you can make a shopping list to get the necessary items you don't already have in stock.


If you want to check prices you could have a go on the mysupermarket.com site, where you can check the prices of items against all the major sms and a couple of discounters.


I really think you could get your budget down by at least £500 a month, unless you are having lots of take-aways or eating out every week, and think what a difference that would make !! It would certainly cover all the interest you are paying atm at £6000 a year !!


You've definitely come a long way in less than two weeks and I wish you all the best on your journey. I'm looking forward to seeing your up-dated SOA when you're sorted.


Remember how long it took to get into this debt, and so it will take a while to get debt-free, but with your perseverance and attitude I'm sure you'll crack it
Lx

getmore4less

Cracking ,

like I said earlier if you are making the min payment and covering the interest(Most cards changed the min so it covers interest always) there is NO compound interest just very high rates on the cards you have.

Check what it says on the statements for APR, it might be monthly this can be converted to an APR using this page.
http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/apr-rate-converter.php

That's where I guessed your rates before from the interest of £600 on £31k, for the CC you want the compounded rate if converting from monthly.

There is going to be a lot of value in spending some time in getting the rates down, a Balance transfer card, a spend card or a low rate for life will all save loads of money that will go towards the debt.

A few hours on that will save £100s a month and give a very good hourly rate return(seems to be something hubby understands).

I think the goal for Feb is to have a bit less going out than coming in, if you did not make it in Jan.

ON the shopping front I think a gradual takeover will work, find things cheaper and just buy a months+ worth so hubby never needs to have it on his list, over time you will have a lot of the regular stuff always in stock at home so his shops are focused towards the cooking(don't take that off him yet ).

crazy_cat_lady

Well done getting it all sorted out, and I'm pleased to see that it's not been too much of a shock to you. Sounds like he's really coming round to your way of thinking as well, which is brilliant!
And by the way, I have a PhD and still struggle with stuff like APR etc. as well. I don't think it's designed to be easy...

questionss

You're doing great - I reckon you've cleared a third of that debt within a year already
Car - getting rid of hire car will clear over £7000
Cleaner/ironer
Utilities swaps

You'll do the rest and start saving soon enough

enthusiasticsaver

Brilliant work and so glad it is under £30k. Yes the compound interest is how banks make their money so you are feeding them and reducing very little of your debt even though you are paying them more than £800 per month. Depressing I know but it can be turned around by a strong focus on repaying it and hopefully some BTs. Economising on your direct debits and reducing discretionary spend so you can throw as much on to your cards as possible will turn around eventually but it will be much easier if you can get the debt on to better rates. I really don't think your OH can berate you for not being aware of how compound interest can stop debt reducing as presumably he did realise this and still did not do anything about it. Heaven knows what it would be in 12 months time if you had not got on top of it. Keep it up!!

getmore4less

questionss wrote: »

You're doing great - I reckon you've cleared a third of that debt within a year already
Car - getting rid of hire car will clear over £7000
Cleaner/ironer
Utilities swaps

You'll do the rest and start saving soon enough

Don't forget the first SOA had a £1800pm over spend so savings don't start till that is resolved.

As we know a lot of that was based on guessed numbers from hubby, a traul through 3month of statements and the new real data should make the next SOA much closer to reality.